Hugh Jackman to Wolverine fans: ‘The planets are finally aligned to make a great movie’

Feb. 01, 2011 | 6:38 a.m.

Hugh Jackman got on the phone Monday to talk to our Geoff Boucher about his upcoming projects. Here’s what he had to say about his return to the metal-clawed mutant persona that has been the signature role of his Hollywood career.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. (Fox)

Geoff Boucher: I remember coming by your office back in the summer of 2009, and you were already talking about your hopes of making a movie out of Marvel’s 1982 “Wolverine” miniseries, the classic by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. And now you’re doing just that — and with director Darren Aronofsky, of all people. You must be thrilled.

Hugh Jackman: I’m really, really pumped about it. I feel like all the planets are finally aligned to make a great movie. We finally have the character and with this mythology — ever since [the 2000 Bryan Singer film] “X-Men,” when I was kind of hanging around and reading all these comics, because I was cast before I ever read any X-Men comics, so I was trying to get my hands on everything. I remember saying to [producer] Lauren Shuler Donner, “Lauren, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen this Japanese story, and I think it’s so good. It’s just genius, it’s brilliant.” And we kind of always talked about it from there on. I sort of even wanted to do that in the third X-Men movie at first, but we thought, no, we really need to establish who he is at first, and we did that [with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine“], and now this is sort of the cherry on top, to finally do it and have Darren Aronofsky direct it. I love his gung-ho attitude toward it and great vision. Straight off, it’s not a sequel, it’s a stand-alone, and I think we’re going to make one that people will describe as the best of the bunch.

Frank Miller's Wolverine in a vintage bit of action. (Marvel Comics)

GB: Well, it better be, right? I mean with that reveredsource material and the director of “Black Swan” and “The Wrestler” — not to mention a script by Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote “The Usual Suspects” — the expectations are going to be pretty high for this one.

HJ: Right, absolutely, and Chris McQuarrie has done a script that is just phenomenal. I read a story once that said that he wrote “The Usual Suspects” in 15 days, and with this one he said to me, “I just knew what I wanted, and it came out real easy.” And he’s done an unbelievable job with it, and with Darren it’s just really exciting. I’m as excited as anybody to see what we come up with. I know we’re going to be met with huge expectations. The expectations will be high, but he’s one of the great filmmakers out there. I worked with him before [on “The Fountain“], and I knew as soon as I met him that he should be doing movies like this. He’s been looking a long time, and I’ve asked him to do other ones, and this time it worked out. I’m beyond thrilled.

GB: Are you going to have to go back to that intense diet, eating whole chickens so you can get that muscle mass back up?

GB: Wow, so you’re going to be bigger this time? Last time, you looked about, what, 190?

HJ: Yeah, right, I was 190, something like that. I don’t know how much I want to give away about it, but Darren said with the last one, ‘Hey you looked great, but you’re so tall that in those long shots you looked kind of like Clint Eastwood, and that’s not Wolverine.” He said that Wolverine, in the comics, is powerful, stocky, you know, he’s short and thick. So he said, ‘I want you to go there, get bigger.’ He’s going to come down after he gets done with all the black-tie events over and done with.

GB: That’s interesting because in comics, sure, Wolverine is quite short and almost hunched over at times, a sort of feral posture, and he’s bulky up high — he’s like the nasty bulldog of superheroes.

HJ: Yeah, he’s thick and it’s chunky and it’s powerful. I always think of Mike Tyson when he first came on the scene. Sometimes, he was a full foot shorter than his opponents and bent over [with this] massive build. There’s real power. You said bulldog, and that’s it exactly. Exactly. That’s what I’m going for, and if I have a massive heart attack first, well, you tell everyone what I was going for.

GB: Well, if you die that’s not really an issue, they can just use CG these days.

HJ: That’s right, just take the four movies and the Oscars hosting and mix them together and they should have enough.

35 Responses to Hugh Jackman to Wolverine fans: ‘The planets are finally aligned to make a great movie’

Hey i love the character he plays but is everyone just going to turn a blind eye to the diet? I hope a doctor is watching him, he’s fine just the way he is. Do some of the tricks they did in x-men one making him look short. 6000 cal. a day is not healthy for anyone, i love the movie but lets be a little more creative without putting him in danger. Did everyone forget he’s a good actor,DUH.

The only characters that should and possibly are in this film are the Hand Ninjas, Mariko Yashida, Silver Samurai, Lord Shingen, Wolverine's Samurai Teacher, and Sunfire (who would make a great character who is outside of Mariko's family).

Love it! :D Can't wait! I've loved Hugh as Wolverine every time. He's fabulous. That's a dedicated actor to put himself through such intense regimens to sculpt himself. And what a great guy too. He deserves every good fortune, and acclaim that can, and will come his way.

No – no – no — Aronofsky is crazy and is going to ruin Jackman's beautiful body — it is not THAT necessary — he was fine already as Wolverine… it wasn't his body that people griped about, it was the script…

Read the damn book! It's Logan, Mariko, Asano and Yukio… and a barrel of ninjas!! But that's it!! No sabretooth, no Silver Samurai! Good god, just read it! It's amazing!! And It better have the bear in it!!!

Hugh Jackman's comments have been the exact same about every single one of the X-men movies. "THis is the best story.." "This is the most emotional story…" and then the film comes out and you realize what a showman he is – great salesman for a weak product. I'm not getting excited until I hear the reviews.

The first two X-Men movies were great and were very strong products. Origins was a letdown, but it might not have felt like that while they were making it. Also, it wasn't Jackman's fault that Origins was weak, they had a non-action guy directing action scenes and it showed. The pacing and the general look of Origins was also weak. A problem they won't have with Arnofsky, who brings it with the visual style and has shown he can direct action.

I'm happy that Jackman is happy, but I was nicely surprised by his 1st stand alone Wolverine movie. I had read such tepid reviews that I passed up seeing it at the theatre, but a Wolverine-nut friend practically forced me to watch it on DVD & I was just about blown away by it. The "critics" really missed the boat on that one. I will certainly be looking forward to this next one.

Back in November, my wife noticed that Hugh Jackman looks a lot like a young Clint Eastwood while we were watching “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”.

Hey Hollywood! You’re so jazzed on remakes, how about remaking “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” with Hugh Jackman as the Man With No Name? I can totally see Hugh nailing this part. And there hasn’t been a good western out in a few years, so a big budget movie like this would probably pull in some major cash.

Plus there were a few "Man With No Name" movies, so if the first one works, you can roll this out into a bi-annual series.

It won't be great until they put Wolverine in his proper costume! We get it, Hugh's a star and covering his face would be such a shame. Yeah Wolverine has spent a fair amount of time in the comics without a mask and the stylists perfected the swoopy hairdo, but let's see Wolverine in his mask and either the yellow or brown costume. Is that too much to ask?

Hugh stop the diet please, you can make us believe you are the Wolverine without the extra bulk man. Knowone can play the part but you, you are fine. I'll help your wife care for you if you do get sick i'm not totally cold.

you people crack me up with the whole 6,000 cals isn't "healthy" crap. I'm sure his 6,000 cal diet is much cleaner than those of you who posted that stuff. People who have no clue about body building and jump to the conclusion that something isn't healthy, should probably research what your talking about first. I'm not talking about your typical "doctors" research either. I'm talking about people with real world experience, with blood work and testing to prove the "safety" of such dieting.

This is the single most weakass line I have ever read in a comment about a movie.
Just..wow. I hate people who take reviews as a measure for movies.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the new Wolverine as well, I like the Origins movie quite a lot and Hugh made an incredible Logan on screen. If he can bring that into the japan story it would already be worth watching! I never even thought about comparing the comics Logan to the movie one in terms of statue and height but now that the article mentioned it, Hugh IS a bit too tall and sleek for the traditional Wolverine, though he pulled it off quite well. 6000 Calories+working out will make him quite bulky with a lot of muscles o.o would be very interesting to watch

What is it with people who angrily disregard reviews as if all critics are mindless drones connected to a singular queen bee who decides if a movie is good or not? When I read 50 plus reviews and 50 different people with 50 different points of view all unanimously agree upon certain elements that speak to a films quality, those points are usually accurate. If 25 real fans of cinema like something and 25 don't, than its a toss up and is THEN determined by personal taste.

That said, true educated fans of cinema have plenty of reasons to be excited about this movie because the people involved have already proven to produce revered, outstanding material with no indication of selling out or becoming creatively lazy.

I'm excited to see a more violent Wolverine, closer to the video game and comic. It's understandable how a character as extreme as Logan can be watered down for a PG-13 rating but if this movie is what I expect it to be there will be much more raw emotions that the previous movies. If it's done right I should be scared of how easily Logan can go crazy and just kill but still feel sorry for his struggle. Easier said than done considering how conditioned audiences are today towards violence.